Quick hits and gossip today:
* Hello, Julie!
The wacky (and whacked) Julie Taymor has resurfaced on Broadway.
Taymor attended last week’s New Dramatists luncheon, her first public appearance in New York since she was deposed as the director of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.”
She was nicely bronzed, having just returned from her villa in Mexico, where she went to lick her wounds.
Sources say she’s still angry with Bono, The Edge and the producers for pitching her overboard, but she had her game face on and received a warm round of applause.
It must have been a poignant afternoon for her, since only a year ago she was honored at the same event. Back then she gave a speech hinting at all the wondrous things that were going to be in her production of “Spider-Man.” She and her lawyers continue to wrangle with the producers of “Spider-Man” over her settlement. I hear she’s thinking about taking her name off the production.
Right now the Playbill reads: “Original Direction by Julie Taymor.”
Destined to be a collector’s item, no doubt.
Footnote: Three cheers for producer Roger Berlind, this year’s New Dramatists honoree. Berlind accepted the award on one condition: that the luncheon, which usually runs until dinner, be over by 2:30.
It came in at 2:15. Berlind is now a hero to benefit prisoners everywhere.
* Drama Desk disaster
New Dramatists may have gotten its act together, but the Drama Desk needs help.
Monday night’s ceremony was, according to several people, a “disaster.”
VIP tables were oversold, which meant that several bigwigs, including Drama Desk nominee John Benjamin Hickey (“The Normal Heart”) had to eat in the basement of the Hammerstein Ballroom with scruffy members of what passes for the theatrical press corps these days.
One person says the Hammerstein is so dilapidated, “it’s more dangerous than ‘Spider-Man.’ ”
A light toppled over on the red carpet, nearly crushing a publicist.
The food ran out early in the evening, and guests received rations limited to three tortellini per plate.
Colin Quinn got a big laugh when he exclaimed: “Really? That was dinner? That was it?”
During Frances McDormand‘s acceptance speech, a waiter dropped a case of beer.
That may explain why the organizers also ran out of drinks, including soda and water.
One theatrical agent was so exasperated he vowed never to let his clients attend the ceremony again.
All I can say is that none of this would have happened had Roger Berlind been in charge.
* Tony Talk
After much wrangling with Tony officials, the producers of “The Book of Mormon” have decided to do the song “I Believe” on the telecast.
It’s an anthem sung to the rafters by the Tony-nominated Andrew Rannells.
The “Mormon” people were angling to open the telecast, and came up with a brilliant idea centered on the first song in the show, “Hello!”
The cast, dressed in Mormon suits and ties, were going to knock on the dressing-room doors of all the stars on Broadway — Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Daniel Radcliffe, Robin Williams.
(Since none of them was nominated, it would have been funny if they slammed the doors in their faces.)
The final door would have been opened by Tony host Neil Patrick Harris, dressed in a Mormon suit and tie. And then an army of Mormons would have descended upon the Beacon Theatre, singing and dancing down the aisles.
What an exciting and theatrical idea.
Alas, the Tonys are immune to anything exciting and theatrical, and so the telecast will open instead with — surprise — a medley led by Harris.
Call Roger Berlind!